L.A. Math: Romance, Crime, and Mathematics in the City of Angels

by James D. Stein

Overview

A collection of detective stories using math to solve crimes

Move over, Sherlock and Watson—the detective duo to be reckoned with. In the entertaining short-story collection L.A. Math, freelance investigator Freddy Carmichael and his sidekick, Pete Lennox, show how math smarts can crack even the most perplexing cases. Freddy meets colorful personalities throughout Los Angeles and encounters mysterious circumstances from embezzlement and robbery to murder. In each story, Freddy's deductive instincts—and Pete's trusty math skills—solve the crime.

Featuring such glamorous locales as Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Malibu, and Santa Barbara, the fourteen short stories in L.A. Math take Freddy and Pete through various puzzles and challenges. In "A Change of Scene," Freddy has to figure out who is selling corporate secrets to a competitor—so he uses mathematical logic to uncover the culprit. In "The Winning Streak," conditional probability turns the tables on an unscrupulous bookie. And in "Message from a Corpse," the murderer of a wealthy widow is revealed through the rules of compound interest. It’s everything you expect from the City of Angels—A-listers and wannabes, lovers and lawyers, heroes and villains. Readers will not only be entertained, but also gain practical mathematics knowledge, ranging from percentages and probability to set theory, statistics, and the mathematics of elections. For those who want to delve into mathematical subjects further, the book includes a supplementary section with more material.

Filled with intriguing stories, L.A. Math is a treat for lovers of romance, crime, or mathematics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691168289
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	01/12/2016
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

James D. Stein is emeritus professor in the Department of Mathematics at California State University, Long Beach. His books include Cosmic Numbers (Basic) and How Math Explains the World (Smithsonian).

Table of Contents

PREFACE: L.A. Math ix

MATHEMATICAL TOPICS BY CHAPTER xv

CHAPTER 1. A Change of Scene 1

CHAPTER 2. The Case of the Vanishing Greenbacks 11

CHAPTER 3. A Matter of Time 21

CHAPTER 4. The Worst Forty Days since the Flood 31

CHAPTER 5. The Accidental Guest 40

CHAPTER 6. Message from a Corpse 50

CHAPTER 7. Animal Passions 60

CHAPTER 8. Nothing to Crow About 69

CHAPTER 9. The Winning Streak 78

CHAPTER 10. One Long Season 88

CHAPTER 11. The Great Basketball Fix 97

CHAPTER 12. It’s All in the Game 106

CHAPTER 13. Division of Labor 115

CHAPTER 14. The Quarterback Controversy 123

APPENDIXES: Continuing the Investigations

1. Mathematical Logic in “A Change of Scene” 137

2. Percentages in “The Case of the Vanishing Greenbacks” 143

3. Averages and Rates in “A Matter of Time” 148

4. Sequences and Arithmetic Progressions in “The Worst Forty Days since the Flood” 153

5. Algebra, the Language of Quantitative Relationships, in “The Accidental Guest” 161

6. Mathematics of Finance in “Message from a Corpse” 166

7. Set Theory in “Animal Passions” 175

8. The Chinese Restaurant Principle: Combinatorics in “Nothing to Crow About” 184

9. Probability and Expectation in “The Winning Streak” 189

10. Conditional Probability in “One Long Season” 198

11. Statistics in “The Great Basketball Fix” 202

12. Game Theory in “It’s All in the Game” 213

13. Elections in “Division of Labor” 219

14. Algorithms, Efficiency, and Complexity in “The Quarterback Controversy” 225

An Introduction to Sports Betting 231

Notes 235

Index 239

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"I've always wanted to find a book that combines genuinely readable short stories with insights into math or science—in L.A. Math, James Stein pulls this off remarkably well. It's as if Ellery Queen, with the help of P. G. Wodehouse, spiced up a collection of detective tales with a generous handful of practical mathematics."—Brian Clegg, author of A Brief History of Infinity and Dice World

"In this fun collection of short stories, Stein's enthusiasm for mysteries that combine sleuthing and mathematics shines through. The math examples used in the stories are excellent and the topics progress naturally. By the end, readers not only have a good understanding of mathematical thinking but also how math can happen around them every day."—Bruce Rothschild, professor emeritus of mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles

"James Stein covers a remarkable range of important mathematical methods and concepts—all by telling stories in Los Angeles. His book makes difficult ideas easy and is an original and highly accessible way of learning more about a vital subject."—Ian Stewart, author of Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries

"L.A. Math could be described as the spirit of Encyclopedia Brown merged with the solving of imaginative math problems. James Stein recasts mathematical and logical conundrums in a series of delightful vignettes between Freddy, a freelance detective new to Los Angeles, and his landlord, Pete, who has a surprising ability to use math to solve Freddy's cases. A wonderful book."—Lance Fortnow, author of The Golden Ticket

"With L.A. Math, James Stein has written a fun collection of short stories whose mysteries are resolved through classical mathematical conundrums. A unique book that is suitably entertaining both in and out of the classroom."—Arthur Benjamin, author of The Magic of Math

"I love this book. With attention to scene and character, L.A. Math weaves together the detective genre with mathematics in entertaining and enjoyable ways."—Oscar Fernandez, author of Everyday Calculus

Editorial Reviews

12/21/2015
An intriguing and original premise distinguishes this slight collection of 14 short mystery stories from retired math professor Stein (Cosmic Numbers). Freddy Carmichael, a freelance PI, has just moved to L.A. after separating from his wife. Luckily, Freddy’s new landlord, Pete Lennox, has a gift for unraveling puzzles, and the two end up going into business together. The solution to each mystery, not all of which involve a crime, illustrates a different mathematical concept (set theory, arithmetic progressions, percentages, etc.). Unfortunately, Freddy and Peter are pretty thin leads, and the questions that they must resolve aren’t particularly sophisticated (one hinges on an understanding of compound interest). The simplistic tenor is more likely to remind readers of Donald Sobol’s Two-Minute Mysteries series than Marshall Jevons’s Harry Spearman mysteries, most recently The Mystery of the Invisible Hand, which successfully integrates economic principles into a whodunit plot line. Agent: Don Fehr, Trident Media Group. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Fun for any crime-fiction lover who fancies a spot of mathematical adventuring, or vice versa."—-Brian Clegg, Popular Science

"James D Stein . . . explains in the preface to the book that entertaining stories set in Los Angeles, with mathematics squeezed painlessly in, was his long cherished dream of a way to teach basic math as fun rather than a chore . . . a book to teach math to non-science students at university."—-S. Ananthanarayanan, The Statesman

"If you liked the Numb3rs TV show: L.A. Math: Romance, Crime, and Mathematics in the City of Angels by James D. Stein."—-John Allen Paulos, author of, A Numerate Life

"A former maths professor has turned detective to demonstrate just how useful—and how entertaining—his subject can be."—-Matthew Reiz, Times Higher Education

"With tight and engaging plots, the stories in LA Math are neatly written and just the right length to read in around 15 minutes."—-Dominic Lenton, Engineering & Technology

From the Publisher